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House prosecutors, Clinton lawyers wrangle over videotaped testimonyNation gets a chance to see, hear Monica Lewinsky
February 6, 1999 WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, February 6) -- In a war of dueling videotapes, House prosecutors and White House lawyers argued Saturday whether the latest testimony from Monica Lewinsky helps or hurts the impeachment case against President Bill Clinton. In this story:
House prosecutors said the testimony of Lewinsky and Clinton associates Vernon Jordan and Sidney Blumenthal shows that Clinton was guilty of "a broad tapestry of corruption" and urged senators to vote to convict and remove him from office. But one of Clinton's lawyers called the prosecutors' excerpts of Lewinsky's testimony "terribly misleading" and said her testimony actually helps the president. Clinton lawyer Nicole Seligman accused House prosecutors of taking Lewinsky's testimony out of context to try to bolster their case.
"They have distorted, they have omitted and they have created a profoundly erroneous impression," Seligman said. Saturday marked the nation's first opportunity to see and hear Lewinsky, the woman at the heart of the White House sex-and-perjury scandal. In the videotape snippets shown during prosecutors' summation, Lewinsky -- dressed in a black dress and wearing a strand of pearls -- appeared self-assured and forceful in her testimony, but nervous and uncomfortable at times, too. "Today the analysis and the speculation ends," Rep. James Rogan (R-California) told senators as Clinton's trial entered its 16th day. "There is only one judgment the Senate must make for history. Do you believe her? "If you believe her, you will see this morning how the president wove a web of perjury and obstruction of justice," Rogan declared. Rogan said if Clinton were only guilty of adultery, there would be no impeachment trial. But at each step along the way, Clinton made bad choices aimed at impeding Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him, he said. "We seek no congressional punishment for a man who chose to cheat on his wife," Rogan said. But House prosecutors have an obligation to seek punishment, he said, "for a president who chose to cheat the law."
Clinton's political and personal legacy is "indulging all choices and accepting no consequences," Rogan said. Rogan also said if senators believe Lewinsky's testimony about her relationship with Clinton, "the just and proper verdict would be to replace him with Vice President Al Gore." Rogan played clips from Lewinsky's videotaped deposition in which she related that she and Clinton discussed using cover stories to conceal their affair. Later she said that Betty Currie, Clinton's secretary, called her and arranged to pick up gifts Clinton had given her. Currie would only have called, said Rogan, if she had been told to do so by the president. That testimony by Lewinsky is evidence, Rogan said, that Clinton participated in obstruction of justice. "If her testimony is truthful, then the president committed the offenses in the articles of impeachment," he said. Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Arkansas), another of the House prosecutors, asserted that Clinton's call to Lewinsky on the night of December 17, 1997, when he told her she would be a witness in the Jones case, was also obstruction of justice. To illustrate the point, Hutchinson played a section of Lewinsky's deposition in which she said, "From what I learned in that conversation, I thought to myself I would deny the relationship" to Jones' lawyers.
"What he (Clinton) is telling a witness in a case that is adverse to him is that you do not have to tell the truth," Hutchinson said. "You can use the cover stories that were used before. He says continue the same lies even though you are in a court of law ... "Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, in my book that is illegal, and I hate to say it, obstruction of justice by the president of the United States," Hutchinson said. The prosecutors also aired selections of deposed testimony by White House aide Blumenthal and presidential friend Jordan, the other two witnesses that received Senate subpoenas. When the White House's turn came, Clinton counsel Seligman played an extensive segment of Lewinsky's deposition in which she said she and Clinton never discussed the content of the affidavit she gave in the Jones case, that he did not want to see it, and that she believed she could give a affidavit that was not false. On the question of gifts from the president, Seligman said, Lewinsky testified that in an interview with investigators from the Office of the Independent Council, she corroborated a statement by Clinton that he told her to "turn over whatever she had." The gifts were subpoenaed by Jones' lawyers.
Asked if Clinton ever told her to turn over the gifts, Lewinsky said she was asked a series of questions after Clinton had testified before the grand jury. When it came to his statement that he told Lewinsky to turn over the gifts, she said, "I said that's sounds a little bit familiar to me." Seligman said that was only one piece of evidence supporting the president's case that was not in the independent counsel's report to Congress. "We can only wonder, in troubled disbelief, how much more we still don't know," she said. Seligman said the question of who initiated the transfer of the gifts from Lewinsky to Currie remains unresolved. "Mrs. Currie has one recollection; Ms. Lewinsky another," Seligman said. Transcripts of the Lewinsky, Jordan and Blumenthal testimony were released Friday, and the information appears to both help and hurt the president. In some areas, Lewinsky helped the prosecution's case, casting doubt on Clinton's sworn grand jury testimony in which he told her she might have to turn over gifts he gave her if they were subpoenaed. Lewinsky insisted that it was indeed Clinton's secretary, Currie, who initiated the hiding of the gifts. But in testimony that should be beneficial to the president, Lewinsky insisted that the president did not coach her to file a false affidavit in the Jones case and refused to say that Clinton lied in his testimony concerning the nature of their relationship.
Lewinsky admitted in her testimony that she has "mixed feelings" for Clinton. Jordan and Blumenthal stuck closely to their testimony in previous grand jury appearances as well. Jordan did admit he had breakfast with Lewinsky on December 31 when confronted with a receipt from the meal. He denied, though, that he told Lewinsky to destroy notes she had drafted to the president. Lewinsky testified that she interpreted a remark from Jordan as a suggestion that she get rid of the notes. The prosecutors wanted Lewinsky to testify in person, but the Senate rejected their request Thursday in a decisive, 70-30 vote. A possible delay in trial?Closing arguments in the trial are set for Monday and the Senate hopes to vote on the articles of impeachment by Friday. But the possible death of Jordan's King Hussein, who is on life-support equipment, could delay the trial's completion. If he dies, a number of senators probably will attend the funeral in Jordan.
CNN's Bob Franken, John King and Brooks Jackson contributed to this report. |
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MORE STORIES:Saturday, February 6, 1999
• House prosecutors, Clinton lawyers wrangle over videotaped testimony • Transcript: Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton -- Day 16 • Senate's legislative clerk killed in accident • Man arrested for disrupting Senate trial pleads not guilty • Presidential hopefuls visit New Hampshire • Espy won't run for office • Clinton seeks to end landing limits at New York, Chicago airports • Clinton presses for crackdown on gun shows • GOP vows to protect Social Security | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
